Provisions
by Kyrie Vali
Summary: Azula is dying. Ty Lee makes soup. Part fluff, part crack, featuring an OOC Azula. Implied TyZula. My first OneShot!


_A/N: I had the flu so I wrote this. I don't own any characters, etc._

* * *

Azula was dying.

There was no other explanation for it.

She hadn't wanted it to be this way. She always thought she would go out in a blaze of glory, in the heat of a raw and bloody battle, taking down at least half of the opposing forces with her.

But no. Instead, she was reduced to _this_.

So, she did what any sane, reasonable person on their deathbed would do, and sent for her closest friends and family.

Well, closest friend, anyway.

…Only friend, really. Only anything, really.

Technically Mai was also her friend, but Mai had been preoccupied with planning her upcoming marriage in the spring, and Azula didn't think her impending doom really warranted Mai's time and attention. And even though the thought of completely ruining her brother's wedding with her own untimely death brought a nostalgic sort of deranged joy to Azula, the days of their sibling rivalry were long past. Zuko was Fire Lord, Azula was General, and they had both made significant strides to be better to one another.

Mostly for their own sakes rather than each other's, because if they didn't, both Mai and Ty Lee would make their lives utterly miserable in every way they knew how.

And they knew a _lot _of ways.

Though Azula supposed it didn't matter much to be so conscientious of her brother and his bride-to-be, especially since she was dying and going to ruin their wedding anyway.

Oh well. It wasn't like she was going to be around to feel the repercussions of that. She was not going to be around much longer at all, at the rate she was going.

Speaking of which, where _was _Ty Lee? Here she was, _on the edge of death itself_, and her closest friend/person/confidante/whathaveyou was nowhere to be found.

Were Azula not on the verge of entering the afterlife, she'd have half a mind to treat Ty Lee with a trip there herself.

_Knock, knock_.

Speak of the devil.

"Come in," Azula rasped, and the door flew open, revealing a slightly disheveled Ty Lee.

"Azula! I got your urgent summons. I came as fast as I could…what's going on?" Ty Lee said breathlessly, brushing a few stray strands of brown hair, escapees from her customary braid, back from her face. Azula felt the corner of her lips twitch involuntarily.

"Ty Lee," Azula said, her voice low and hoarse. "You made it. I'm glad."

"…Azula, what's going on?" Ty Lee wrinkled her nose. "You sound…_awful_."

Azula frowned. What a terrible thing to say.

"And you don't look so great, either," Ty Lee added. Azula scowled. For someone supposedly so attuned to the energies of others, Ty Lee had a tendency towards bluntness that not even Azula could match. Azula's brand of honesty was more like a razor; surgical and precise, designed to cut you to the quick. Ty Lee, on the other hand, would bludgeon you over the head with her tactlessness, then double-back and sack you in the gut, all without even realizing she had even hit you to begin with. The accompanying pain itself came from the lack of expectation, as opposed to the effectiveness of the weapon, which made it decidedly far less pleasant than whatever Azula could mete out. At least with Azula, you always knew what you were going to get. Ty Lee, on the other hand, could be quite the mystery.

Blunt honesty bundled in a bizarre combination of doe-eyed naïveté, reckless optimism, and a deceptively high level of perceptive intelligence, all hidden behind a cheery, aesthetically pleasing visage. That was Ty Lee in a nutshell.

Or maybe that was Ty Lee out of the nutshell. Azula could never quite decide, and she certainly could not do it now, what with her brain currently attempting to radiate itself out the front of her skull, or through her nose, whichever was the path of least resistance.

"Of course I sound awful," Azula hissed, coughing slightly. "What do you expect from someone in the final moments of their life?"

"…What?"

Azula rolled her sore eyes. Apparently Ty Lee had left her perceptive capabilities at home today. "Do I have to spell it out? I'm dying, Ty Lee."

"Dying to do what? Get some tea with honey?" Ty Lee asked blankly.

Azula brought a clammy hand to her burning hot forehead and rubbed her temples lightly. "No, not for _tea_, Ty Lee. I'm…I'm _dying_. And I need to tell you something important before I do, so stop being so daft!"

"…What?!"

Ah, yes. That was more like it.

"Yes," Azula continued, wrapping her favorite robe more tightly around herself. She loathed the thought of meeting her end in a robe, of all things, like some sort of decrepit old man, and she knew it was well past (or well before, depending on how you looked at it) the appropriate time for such attire, but her robe was the easiest and most comfortable piece of clothing to get in and out of, and her condition had rendered her completely incapable of dressing herself this morning. And she really didn't feel like putting on all her armor just to die in it, either. "I believe I may have been _poisoned_."

"Poisoned?"

"It started a little while ago. Everything started hurting…and the world keeps sliding in and out of focus. I'm inexplicably tired and faint…My entire head feels as if it's been placed in some infernal, burning vice…it hurts to even speak! And I've even been reduced to breathing through my mouth, like some mannerless, inbred peasant…" Azula spat contemptuously as she made her way to her desk, where she had been drafting a letter previously. It was addressed to Zuko, and was the beginning of an outline of what to do with the treasury, economic policy, and the military once she was gone. Azula smiled wryly. Her mortality was making her so sentimental. "I'm afraid I'm not much longer for this world."

Ty Lee was silent, as Azula had expected her to be. She moved forward and slid her cool, soft hand on Azula's forehead. It was not an entirely unpleasant sensation.

Then, Ty Lee began to laugh, which Azula had not expected at all.

"What could possibly be so funny at a time like this? Were you so hopeful for my demise that you're _giddy_ from excitement at the prospect?" Azula demanded as she batted Ty Lee's hand away with her own, before being overcome with a painful coughing fit.

"Azula, you're not dying, silly," Ty Lee said at last once her guffawing had subsided. "You're just sick!"

Sick? Impossible.

"…Sick? Impossible," Azula scoffed, sitting in her chair and re-wrapping her very thin robe around herself. "I've never gotten sick my whole life. My immune system is among the most powerful in the world! …And I'm _not_ silly."

"Even the strongest people get sick, Azula," Ty Lee giggled. "It happens to everyone. Mai and Zuko are both sick now, too! And _anyone_ can be silly."

"What?!" Azula balked, the pressure inside her head increasing exponentially. "Why did no one tell me this? We've been compromised!"

"Well, I don't think being silly is the worst thing—"

"It must be some sort of plot…the Nation's three most powerful individuals, all poisoned at the same time? It cannot be coincidence. It must be assassins…perhaps the Earth Kingdom has decided to move against us once again, planning to plunge us into chaos and disorder before an invasion!" Azula growled, her eyes darting back and forth as she quickly processed this new information. She could feel the fire, the desire to rain revenge and havoc down on her enemies' heads, growing within her, but her pain and discomfort reared dangerously and extinguished the flames. "How could I have been so blind to this? How could they have poisoned us all? There must be spies—double agents—they will be sought out and destroyed. Our country is in peril. We must make provisions."

"Provisions?"

"Yes, making sure everything is provided for in the event of my demise. We must make them at once!"

Azula stood abruptly, and the room began to spin around her in a dizzying swirl of red, black, and gold. She sank back into her chair.

"Perhaps I shall sit for a bit first, and make provisions later," she mumbled, her swelling head heavy on her aching neck. She had always prided herself on her brain, but now she wanted to do nothing more than rip it out herself and finish the job it had already started.

"Okay, you need to lie down. Come on, I'll help you to your bed," Ty Lee said, taking Azula by the arm. Apparently Ty Lee had left her intelligence at home as well.

"Lie down? How could you suggest such a thing? There is work to be done! Enemies to be vanquished! Final wishes to be uttered! Antidotes to be sought!"

"You don't need an antidote, you need medicine. And rest," Ty Lee insisted, gently pulling Azula to her feet. "…And a thicker robe! Is this all you have on? You're cold as ice!"

Azula yanked her arm away and grumbled, wrapping her arms around herself more tightly. "Cold? _Me_? I am a master firebender, and master firebenders are never cold!"

Ty Lee blinked. "Azula, you're shivering."

"What? This? Obviously my body's nervous system is under attack by the toxins…" Azula mumbled, sinking back down into her chair. She glanced at the floor, which appeared to be doing the most remarkable stationary ballet she had ever seen.

"…No, you're shivering because you're wearing practically nothing and you're _cold_, Azula." Ty Lee made her way to the armoire in the corner of the room and retrieved a heavy silk comforter normally reserved for the winter months. "Have you really never seen a sick person before?"

"No, Ty Lee, I enjoy surrounding myself with the infirm for fun. On the weekends, mostly. You know, when I don't have anything better to do, like keeping our country safe from invaders or making sure Zuko doesn't accidentally concede massive quantities of land to the Earth King…_again_."

Ty Lee looked at Azula and sighed as she threw the blanket around her. "Well, at least your sarcasm gland is healthy, I guess. Now come on, sicky, you're going to bed."

"But I'm not sick, I'm _dying_. And there are important things that must be done! What if I die in my sleep without making sure everything's in order first? What if there are no provisions? Everything will fall into chaos! And it'll all be _your_ fault. You wouldn't want that, would you?" Azula asked, trying her best to do that usual thing that she did (silky voice, raised eyebrow, pointed eye contact, exuding utter confidence while making the other person fear the repercussions of not heeding her advice…) that always seemed to convince everyone that what she was saying was the absolute truth.

"No, I wouldn't," Ty Lee conceded. "…But you're not dying."

Apparently that thing that she always did was not very easy to do when her voice was gravelly instead of silky, when her eyes were watery and bloodshot, when it hurt to even dare to move one eyebrow, and utter confidence was something less like confidence and more like a mixture of anxiety and discomfort. Azula cleared her throat and opened her mouth to try again, but a dry, wheezing cough came out instead.

How very attractive, Azula thought bitterly, as she adjusted the blanket around her shoulders. It did reduce the shivering somewhat, but that was probably coincidental. Maybe her nerves were finally dying off.

"You probably just caught a bug from Zuko," Ty Lee continued, examining Azula in her regrettably pitiable state.

Azula's brow twitched and she gazed up at Ty Lee, ignoring the dull throbbing in the back of her neck. "…Do you mean to tell me that my idiot brother _infected_ me with this horrible disease?"

Ty Lee shrugged. "Probably. Unless you've seen Mai lately, but she's been so busy—"

"_Murderous fiends!_" Azula hissed, her fingers digging into the warm blanket draped around her. She launched into a mixture of a rant and a coughing fit, the sudden burst of activity sending her decomposing body into a conniption. "I…shall wreak…havoc…on them all! Oh…he will…RUE…the day…!"

"Azula," Ty Lee stated firmly. "Do you _really_ think your brother got himself sick just so he could make you miserable?"

"Who knows, he probably meant to infect only me and bungled it all…you know as well as I do what an incompetent buffoon he can be…!" Azula muttered after finally regaining control of her rebellious body and its traitorous immune system. But, much like Azula herself, her body fought back against her control, and increased the ballooning pain in her skull and the ringing in her ears. "But perhaps you're right. Such a technique is far too advanced for him. It's too…_delicate_. Underhanded. Sneaky. Like the Dai Li…It may be an assassination attempt after all…"

"The Dai Li were dissolved after the war. You know that."

"The head of a snake can still bite, even after it's been cut off…" Azula whispered conspiratorially, attempting to dart her eyes around the room, but it hurt to move those, as well. If disease could render her so utterly vulnerable, then surely it would decimate her inferiors. "Hmm…to use disease as a means of assassination…a novel idea indeed. Undetectable. Untraceable. Innocuous to the average coroner. Perhaps this method of biological warfare can be weaponized for our own purposes…_yes_…"

"…Okay, now you're starting to scare me."

Yes, fear. A powerful weapon, indeed. The fear of disease would surely send an entire nation into panicked, paranoid distress, crippling its economy and dismantling its very infrastructure. They would be utterly demolished without the need for a single invasion. Then the Fire Nation Army, having stockpiled the excess resources, would invade, somehow avoid infection, and…

Curses. If Azula herself could succumb to such a deadly plague, who in the world could possibly outlive it?

"It'll never work…there's no way to control or predict which targets it would eliminate…which means…" Azula gasped suddenly, coughing once again and wrapping her blanket around her mouth like a mask. "Ty Lee! You must leave at once! What if it gets you, too?"

"All right, that's it. You're going to bed right now." Ty Lee moved forward, grabbing at Azula, who recoiled violently despite the excruciating pain in her joints and chest.

"You can't make me…What are you doing? Let go of me! Stay back! I'll infect you!" Azula wriggled unsuccessfully against her captor as Ty Lee dragged her out of her chair and toward the bed.

"Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take," Ty Lee harrumphed, releasing her grip on Azula and resting her hands on her hips. "Now are you going to come quietly, or am I going to have to chi-block you?"

Azula looked up and down at Ty Lee, quickly weighing the different possibilities. With firebending and at medium to long range, Azula would easily win against Ty Lee nine out of ten times. But at close range, even with her firebending, Ty Lee likely had the upper hand six out of ten times. Without firebending, and in the state she was currently in, and the fact that there were now two Ty Lees spinning around in her room, Azula didn't have a chance at all.

"That's not fair. There are two of you!"

"Says the girl who claims that fair fights are for fairly stupid people," Ty Lee laughed, before pausing. "Wait, what? Two of – when's the last time you ate anything?"

"How am I supposed to know? I've been a little preoccupied with, I don't know…_dying_." Both Ty Lees were beginning to look annoyed, so Azula continued. "…I skipped breakfast this morning because I wasn't feeling well. I've been in my room ever since."

"And you didn't send the servants to get you anything?"

"…I didn't want them to see me like this," Azula said quietly, glancing to the floor, which now appeared to be pulsating. "It's shameful. The only person I've spoken to is you…"

Well, she also communicated with the messenger, but he didn't really count because he was just a servant and not a real person.

One Ty Lee smiled, and the other one frowned. "So you haven't had anything to eat or drink all day? No wonder you're so miserable! You are getting into bed right now, and I am going to get you some food and medicine."

"But what if I die while you're gone? What then?"

"You're not going to _die_, Azula," Ty Lee sighed, wrapping the blanket around Azula tightly before guiding her to and depositing her on the bed. "Don't be such a big baby."

"You can't know that for certain," Azula muttered, her natural instinct to struggle severely neutered by the horrible pains wracking her entire body, as well as the thick blanket Ty Lee had used to imprison her arms and most of her legs. Azula added quietly, "And I'm not a baby. Zu-Zu's the baby."

"You totally are being a baby. And I'm sure the rest of us will survive even if you do keel over. _Without_ having made provisions," Ty Lee teased lightly as she gently forced Azula to lay down in the bed. She pulled the sheets over her, tucking her in as tightly as possible. "You know, I'm starting to think you just don't want me to leave…"

Azula scowled, attempting to fold her arms indignantly but failing against her cocoon-like prison. "N-no, that's not it. I'm just…concerned. About the future. Of our nation."

"Right, of course you are. Well, you just stay there, and I'll be right back, okay?"

"…Very well, if you insist on going on this fool's errand. Just don't go crying to Mai when you come back and find my cold, lifeless body and zero plans for the army or royal treasury."

"It won't really be your problem anymore then, now will it? I'll be right back," Ty Lee said soothingly as she placed a quick peck on Azula's clammy forehead. Azula forced a frown, but said nothing as both Ty Lees departed.

* * *

When Ty Lee returned with a tray full of soup, medicine, and various teas, she didn't quite know what she expected to find.

She certainly didn't expect to find Azula sitting cross-legged on the floor, a blanket wrapped haphazardly around her, with a brush in hand and a dozen or so pieces of paper littering the floor. The first few pages were covered in neat, elegant characters that slowly morphed into indiscernible scribbles, then squigglies, then pictures of little stick men on fire.

"…What are you doing? I thought I told you to go to sleep."

"I'm drafting plans for what to do once I'm gone. You know. _Provisions_," Azula replied as-a-matter-of-factly. She sat back from her drawings for a bit, then scrunched up her face in a manner Ty Lee could only describe as utterly adorable. "…At least, that's what I started doing. Before everything became…fuzzy."

Azula stared intently at a piece of paper with a particularly indistinguishable black blob on it.

"Ooooooookay," Ty Lee approached slowly, as one would approach a potentially irritable and definitely misbehaving platypus bear. "You are getting back in your bed right now."

Azula opened her mouth in protest, but closed it when Ty Lee shot her a glare. Ty Lee had never expected that a simple glare would be able to quiet the very vocal and very domineering princess so easily, but there were a lot of things about Azula that Ty Lee never expected.

"Very well. I'm done writing for now, anyway," Azula said lightly, laying her brush down on the inkstone. Ty Lee knew Azula probably wasn't really done, but the other girl was nothing if not prideful, and Ty Lee was always more than willing to let Azula have all the little victories.

She would save all the big ones for herself, of course.

Azula picked herself up off the floor with uncharacteristic difficulty and shuffled over to the bed, which looked very much like it had gotten into a scuffle with an airbender. Ty Lee made a mental note to make sure to tuck her in even tighter next time.

"There, I'm in bed. Happy? Now what?" the petulant princess asked, arms folded across her chest defiantly. Ty Lee forced back a giggle, because it was uncommon for Azula, who had always been really mature for their age, to act so…childish. And even though Azula had come a long way from her days of murderous crazypants craziness, she still always had this air of danger about her that Ty Lee found…_thrilling_.

But right now, the air of danger had been blown away and replaced by something…what was the word?

Oh, right. Really, really, ridiculously cute.

"You're going to eat your soup and take your medicine, and then you're going to sleep," Ty Lee replied authoritatively, placing the tray of food, tea, and medicine on Azula's lap.

"Eating in bed? How…_unseemly_."

"Not as unseemly as dying from hunger because you forgot to feed yourself," Ty Lee quipped, earning her a glare from Azula. She was much better at it than Ty Lee was, that was certain.

"Please," Azula muttered with a roll of her eyes. "I'm _much_ more likely to die of dehydration first. If not poison."

"For the last time, you're not poisoned."

"I'm talking about this soup. Did you make this yourself? It's…peculiar," Azula made an odd face as she spooned through the cloudy broth in front of her, drudging up an oversized komodo chicken claw entangled in several strands of rice noodle.

"It's ginseng and komodo chicken noodle! And yes, I did make it, so you better eat all of it."

Azula examined the spread before her. "What, no pepper flakes?"

"You're lucky I brought it," Ty Lee rolled her eyes and handed her the customary container of pepper flakes from her pocket. Azula almost never consumed Ty Lee's cooking without additional accoutrements, at least not willingly, and while Ty Lee found it mildly insulting, it was better than Azula refusing to eat it altogether. "Anything else, your Highness?" she asked mockingly.

"…Salt?"

"You haven't even tasted it yet!" Ty Lee balked. Okay, maybe more than mildly insulting. But there were really only so many insults a good-natured, beautiful girl like Ty Lee could take about her cooking before even she snapped.

"No, but your palate is considerably more attuned to sweets than mine is. So…salt?"

Ty Lee exhaled sharply. Even in her feverish state, Azula possessed a frustrating amount of logic and reasoning.

"…You are _really_ pushing your luck, you know that?"

"Well, I'm already giving it a go by consuming this dubious soup, what's the harm in pushing it a bit more?"

And an even more frustrating sense of humor.

"…Here, just take it. Satisfied?" Ty Lee produced a salt shaker from her other pocket and set it down in front of the picky princess in a less-than-gentle manner.

"Yes, thank you."

"There, it's not so bad, is it?" Ty Lee asked as she watched Azula take in a cautious spoonful.

"Nearly inedible," Azula shrugged. "…But a considerable improvement from your foray into roast squid."

"You know, I didn't _have_ to make you soup."

"And yet I _have_ to eat it. That hardly seems fair."

"…Well, you don't _have_ to, I suppose. And I also don't _have_ to stay here with you. I _could_just leave you here alone to die. Or worse, tell everyone about how big, strong, scary Azula was reduced to a bratty little kid just because she was feeling a little under the weather…" Ty Lee trailed off, smirking at the affronted Azula.

"Oh, please…You wouldn't _dare_," Azula scoffed, the usual confident smirk on her lips.

Ty Lee loved and hated that smirk. She leaned over Azula and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Try me."

Somehow, Azula suddenly looked more simultaneously paler and more flushed than before, something that Ty Lee did not think possible. Azula turned away from Ty Lee's own confident smirk and coughed lightly into the back of her hand.

"When did you become so cruel?" she muttered, still turned away and refusing to face Ty Lee head on.

"I learned from the best," Ty Lee answered playfully, triumphantly standing back up to her full height. Victory against Azula was sweet indeed.

"Really? When did you find the time to interact with my father?" Azula asked, turning back to meet Ty Lee now that she was no longer in dangerously close proximity.

"I meant you."

"I know. I was joking. I do that sometimes," Azula deadpanned sourly.

"Yeah, because you're just _so_ witty and hilarious."

"Oh please. You _love_ my jokes."

"Or maybe that's what I _want_ you to think."

Azula side-eyed Ty Lee thoughtfully, then frowned ever-so-slightly in a way that could only be described as a very restrained pout. She silently resumed eating her soup. Ty Lee winced inwardly, a heavy weight suddenly settling on top of her ribcage. Azula was upset.

"Wow, no snappy retort? You really must be sick…Or dying. But probably just sick."

"I dislike being sick," Azula muttered, dispassionately pushing the komodo chicken claw around her bowl with her spoon.

"Better than dying though, right?" Ty Lee offered helpfully, plopping down on the bed next to her patient. Azula didn't respond. Ty Lee paused, searching for a way to alleviate Azula's foul mood. "Speaking of which, what were you going to tell me when you thought you were on your deathbed?"

"…Nothing."

Ty Lee quirked an eyebrow. Azula was an excellent liar, but Ty Lee was an even better lie detector.

Especially if Azula happened to be sick and not quite up to her usual standards.

"Uh-huh. Nothing is why you sent an urgent summons for me to come talk to you when you were convinced you were going to die?"

"It wasn't anything important," Azula huffed. "Just…provisions."

"Right. Provisions. Got it," Ty Lee mumbled. She perked up slightly at a new thought. "Well, what sort of provisions?"

"Well I'm not dying, so it's no longer relevant," Azula said, sounding quite disappointed that she had been incorrect, rather than elated that she was not going to die. She sniffed at the small container of ground-up herbs and fire-beetle husks. "And this medicine is absolutely foul."

Ty Lee shrugged innocently. "Well…you _could_ be dying. I _do_ have a history of being wrong…and you do have a history of being right."

Azula smiled slightly, and Ty Lee felt the weight lift off her chest.

"Well, you are right about that, at least," Azula attempted to say lightly, holding back a nasty-sounding cough as she pushed the full container of medicine away from her. "And I suppose it would be prudent to have provisions in place regardless of whether or not I die in the near future."

"Yes, very prudent," Ty Lee agreed fervently. She repeated Azula's word of the day. "Provisions."

"Very well," Azula sighed with feigned reluctance. She reached under her pillow and handed Ty Lee a red and gold envelope that had been sealed with Azula's official seal.

"Oh. It really _is _a provision," Ty Lee mumbled, turning over the thin envelope in her hands. She had hoped it had been something more…exciting. Or enlightening.

"Go ahead, open it. I believe we're both well past the point of being shy around one another," Azula said, sipping her tea. She had apparently finished her soup, noodles, claw, and all, with frightening speed at some point during their conversation.

"It's a will," Ty Lee realized as she stumbled over the more complicated characters and phrases that she recognized as being only used in official governance and legal documents.

"Keep reading."

"I, Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation, Daughter of Ozai and Ursa, of sound mind and blah blah blah, do attest this to be my last will and testament…blah blah blah…appoint Fire Lord Zuko as personal executor of these contents blah blah blah…so long as vengeance is sought and exacted in the most appropriate manner deemed blah blah blah…and do bequeath the entirety of my estate, properties, possessions, and assets to—You're leaving me all your stuff?!"

"Why? Don't you want it?"

"No, it's not that, it's just—well, I just—I mean—I never thought…"

"Don't sound so surprised. If I didn't leave it to you, everything would just go back to my brother, and you and I both know he already has more than he can possibly handle. And you would certainly get more out of my considerable wealth than him or Mai or anyone else I know. Except maybe the messenger," Azula explained quickly with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But I don't even know his name so clearly I wasn't going to give it all to him."

"Oh, Azula," Ty Lee murmured, her aura turning all different shades of pink. Thanks to all of Azula's various efforts to dismiss the more emotional and vulnerable aspects of her personality, Ty Lee had become an expert at reading between the lines. She threw her arms tightly around the other girl, sickness be damned. "You _do_ care!"

"Well, _obviously_. I'm not a _complete_ monster," Azula rolled her eyes, setting down her cup of tea. She did not, however, remove herself from Ty Lee's enthusiastic embrace. "I thought I made that abundantly clear."

"Your idea of clear is my idea of a muddy pond," Ty Lee laughed, squeezing the grumbling princess tightly. With one arm she reached over the tray and picked up the container of brown, foul-smelling herbs. "…You still have to take your medicine, though."

Azula made a small noise of disapproval, and Ty Lee giggled.

"…Sugar?"

"Now _that_ I always have."

* * *

"I brought more soup," Ty Lee announced as she pushed Azula's door in with her rear, balancing a tray full of assorted teas on her head and one with assorted soups on each arm.

"Unnecessary," Azula dismissed, straightening her hairpiece in the mirror. She paused momentarily, slightly ill (though not nearly as ill as she had been) at the thought of her delirious vulnerability that she had paraded in front of Ty Lee yesterday. "I am feeling much more myself today."

"Really? So soon? Wow, that's great, Azula!" Ty Lee announced cheerily, a wide grin on her slightly flushed face. She set the trays of food down on Azula's desk, next to the neat stack of various papers Azula had drawn up yesterday that she would have to sort through later. "So no more dying? Or talk of provisions?"

"Well, we'll see about that," Azula said crossly, sitting on the wooden ottoman at the foot of her bed and pulling on one of her perfectly polished boots. "I've yet to return Zu-Zu's favor for infecting me in the first place."

"Just don't be too hard on him. Mai's still sick, and she's even needier than you!"

The corner of Azula's lip twitched involuntarily. "Yes, about that…I trust that yesterday's little incident will remain…confidential between the two of us?"

"Confidential? You mean like all the other stuff we do in your room—"

"Yes. Like that," Azula interrupted brusquely, clearing her less-sore throat. She pulled on her other boot smoothly. "Let us…never speak of this particular occurrence again, all right?"

"My lips are sealed," Ty Lee replied with a firm nod, making the accompanying gestures that were customary whenever she made a promise to anyone. "I won't tell anyone about how you got sick and thought you were dying and wanted to make sure I was provided for when you were gone and made yourself into a blanket fort and drew weird pictures and deliriously woke me up to swear everlasting vengeance against the common cold in the middle of the night."

"…There's _nothing_ common about that cold," Azula muttered darkly, folding her arms across her chest. No mere cold could have reduced her to the state that she had been in. "And you'd better not tell anyone, or else I'm writing you out of my will."

"I'm sure Zhang the messenger will be very happy about that," Ty Lee giggled, and Azula scowled. "I really am glad you're feeling better though."

"Yes, yes, I know, I was unbearable," Azula admitted begrudgingly. She had never been good with admitting weakness or the need for help, and was even less skilled at showing her appreciation for one who had helped her…but it was Ty Lee. "Well, thank you for putting up with…that unpleasantness."

"…Actually, the _real_ reason I'm glad you're feeling better…" Ty Lee leaned over Azula, her voice a husky whisper. For a moment, Azula feared her fever had returned. "…is because I don't feel so good…"

Ty Lee lurched forward slowly and fell face-first onto Azula and the bed.

"TY LEE!"

_Fin._

* * *

_A/N: …So, that happened._

_A flu-addled brain and watching Azula be paranoid about betrayal and her own mortality in Sozin's Comet Part 3 inspired this. I hope it wasn't totally awful._


End file.
